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Week four and I’m having a break away from placement. I’ve been offered paid work back at home, and after a month of hard work in London, it’s time I topped up my bank account ready for my next uni year.

This week I was at Sky Mag in Chelsea. First impressions – friendly people, nice office and laid back atmosphere, but as for the work, well… I can safely say I do not want to do another transcript for a while. Appreciating the fact I was only at Sky for a week, I think I was naively optimistic about the work I would be doing. Having expectations that I maybe given an assignment to go into the magazine, I forgot to take into account that a mere work experience student would not have such responsibility! However, again looking at the overall picture, I realised the tasks I completed contributed to the broader picture of the company.

It was also interesting to meet other interns there. One girl had been working at Sky Mag for a year. And wasn’t getting paid. It came as a bit of a shock, but then again reiterated to me the importance of gaining experience at these places. The journalists at Sky Mag after all did seem to have really interesting, exciting jobs. Hot competition.

The transcripts I worked on were packed with cast members from hit US Shows such as Ghost Whisperer, NCIS and Desperate Housewives to which Emma, one of the journalists, had flown across to the Monaco TV Festival to meet and interview them. Pretty cool if u ask me.

However, a part of me questions what I have actually learnt during my time on placement this past month. A month? What could I really learn? I have learnt that units on my course do actually make sense, and skills I have been taught do come in useful. Yet, the six-week time frame for placement is nowhere near long enough to gain enough full-blown valuable experience. I think year long placements, and sandwich years would benefit students a lot more.

The actual structure of the work experience too I think should be reviewed. Who ever thought sending students out for six weeks, unpaid, over summer would be a good idea? For me, summer has always been about trying to finance myself for the next university year. Are you telling me students don’t need to work in the summer after digging themselves deeper and deeper into their overdrafts?! (HA).

So, my plan now is to return to work experience for my final two weeks of the summer holidays. 14th September: MTV and 21st September: Sky.

Over and out (for now)…